The 20 Greatest Bosses in Video Game History - #5: Mike Tyson

I could never do it. I devoted countless hours of my life, right up through college, to the goal of beating Tyson, and I could never do it. He was too fast, and he kept using that one-punch knockout move he had. But even after countless attempts, I kept trying. The game keeps you hanging on, and a large part of that is the presence of an actual champion boxer (it helps that he’s managed to at least stay visible in the subsequent years, if not always for the right reasons) who licensed out his name and likeness. Beating up on the decidedly un-PC cast of cartoon caricatures was fun enough, but fighting Tyson almost seemed like a reward in and of itself, and the game has the devoted following almost twenty years after its release to prove it: like the “Konami Code,” the password to reach Tyson directly has become like a secret handshake among fans (it’s 007-373-5963 if you’re wondering.)

- Ryan Stewart

• Mike Tyson
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